Weapons School Graduation

Remember when I told you about that "special fighter pilot school" John was selected to go to (and the entire reason he was away from us for 5+ months)? Well, he graduated the other day ( actually...the other month ago). Woot Woot!

The first night of celebration was Friday night. Friday night all prior Weapons School graduates and their wives have the opportunity to come back and and celebrate with all the new graduates. The guys and girls start off separately, and then meet up at the end of the night.

Let the fun begin.

We knew Emily and Bluto at Kadena. He went through the F15 weapons school.

In John's class the F15 and F22 guys are in the same squadron. There were 3 guys in the F15 class and 3 in the F22 class. these are the wives of the guys in the class. 

The wives all go in on a party bus together and visit a few of the clubs/bars/hotels on the strip.

I only included this dark and blurry pic of  us because somehow one of the wives (not Hayley in the picture) of an IP  in the squadron is friends with the family who owns Tao. she came out and had a good time with us on the strip, and we got the VIP treatment everywhere we went. That was my first, and probably last VIP experience! 

At the end of the night we go back to the base and meet up with the guys. Good times all around. 

The next night was the actual graduation. Like all graduations, this was the more formal and less personal part of the weekend (all current Weapons School graduates are named during this ceremony, so while you're super excited for everyone, there's a lot of clapping and waiting). The pic is super blurry, hopefully, the professional pic came out better!

After graduation we met up with some friends and then John and I went and looked at the Belagio fountains. A first for me!

The following night was a Weapons school reunion (which I think is held once every five years). 

This is Gringo (call sign of course, not his real name, I don't know that one). He is here with us at holloman and he was the Weapons officer when John and I came to Holloman.

That was an amazing, once in a life time weekend!